


By The Sea

by platehate



Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Gen, Haru does not speak, M/M, Merman Nanase Haruka, Never again, Tragedy, What Was I Thinking?, at all, mackerel power, village setting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-30
Updated: 2014-09-30
Packaged: 2018-02-19 09:02:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2382635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/platehate/pseuds/platehate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On a farm by the sea, Makoto leads a simple life, until somewhere along the way a creature from the water becomes a frequent visitor. Unfortunately it all ends in tragedy.</p><p>But let's not forget that every cloud has a silver lining.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Gonna put up a couple of alternate endings for this because i love those, and also because i'm writing this to vent but i don't really want to completely smash hearts. All the endings will probably involve death, though. Some kind of fusion piece inspired by Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior, mermaid folk tales, Free! and my imagination. Stole some lines.
> 
> Disclaimer: i do not own Free!, or any folk tales, or The Woman Warrior.
> 
> (also in my head makoto is 14 here but age isn't really important so feel free to impose your own expectations in this regard)

**xxx**

 

On a farm by the sea, everyone knows what to watch out for. Freak storms, surging tides, changing seasons, and ever-constant stars. Creatures of folklore, too. Perhaps in a more urban setting such beliefs and stories would have long been dismissed as silly musing, but out here, in the backwaters of a swampy backwater, they hold true as ever.

Makoto has been raised in this environment, heard all the stories and carries them around with him, nestling quietly in the back of his head. There are stories for all sorts of purposes passed down from the elders, but the most commonly passed around has nothing to do with morals and guidance and all those other things. Makoto hears of it as it makes its rounds among the groups of men (and boys) who squat in the cool shelter of the trees during midday smoke breaks – the one about the mermaid. Apparently it’s especially important for the simple, innocent type of young man to beware – they do seem to be the favourite target of innumerable supernatural beings. That means Makoto has to watch out, then. After all, he _is_ the nicest kid in the village, and everyone knows that.

They guffaw loudly at the trepidation in his eyes.                                                                    

“Don’t ya worry, kid. This whole village is a family…we ain’t going ta let any ghost attack you.”

Still, what are the chances that mermaids really exist, or that one will materialise in his room in the dead of night ready to lure him to a watery grave? Since he’s lost family to the waves before, Makoto doesn’t go near the ocean if he can help it. He prefers to stay safely on shore, where he won’t have to think about the possibility of helplessly flailing as he sinks, or struggling to check the mounting pressure in his chest, or what he imagines is a final wave of panic before the blackness takes over. _God,_ it gives him the shudders. So _no_. No matter how hard that mermaid tries, Makoto honestly doesn’t think it’ll be able to get him to follow it into the water.

 

**xxx**

 

The days pass and nothing happens (yet). Spring comes to an end, the rainy season moves in. Makoto can see the ocean’s expanse from his window and takes care to look at it every night before he sleeps, even though it glitters at him in a darkly knowing way. He pushes that thought away.

The monster chooses to appear one day when _Tsuyu_ has started in earnest, a day of constant rainfall that seems to have swelled the ocean into a glowering grey expanse. How ominous. Makoto’s equally scared of stormy nights and ghosts, so being startled awake by a reverberating clap of thunder to lock eyes with a _creature_ sitting at the foot of his futon absolutely petrifies him. He doesn’t dare to move or breathe for nearly a full minute as they stare into each other’s eyes – they’re so _blue_ , so pure, and they speak so many volumes that it’s _unfathomable_. This is undoubtedly a creature of the ocean.

After Makoto’s calmed himself a little, he can see that the situation isn’t exactly what he had been told to expect. For one, this mer-creature appears to be male. It’s also silently offering him a plate full of……is that _mackerel?_

He declines and the creature shrugs, after which he sits there for the next hour watching it slowly consume the fish, sporadic flashes of lightning illuminating parts of their faces. Makoto finds he feels a little less afraid of the storm. It disappears without warning, suddenly spirited away by another clap of thunder – the exact moment the mackerel is finished. After that first meeting, the creature returns to Makoto’s room with every stormy night the rainy season brings; always with the plate full of mackerel to be eaten; always with its coming and going heralded by the lightning and thunder. It doesn’t seem to be able to speak with its mouth, but it speaks with its eyes, and that’s good enough. Good enough for the plate of mackerel to be politely offered and politely declined, good enough for comfortable silence and thinking about how his day went. Makoto decides to view its presence as that of an envoy from the ocean, to help him get over his fear with the wordless comfort it offers.

Unfortunately for them, it does not escape the Tachibana household’s notice that their eldest son’s room reeks of mackerel the morning after every heavy storm. When Makoto is summoned by the council of village elders and questioned, he hedges, but confesses to having seen an apparition of some sort. That very night, the council votes in favour of conducting a raid.

The approach of the next stormy night fills Makoto with a leaden dread. The world seems twice as gloomy, and he’s too anxious to eat or sleep, can only toss and turn futilely. The mer-creature appears as expected with another full plateful of mackerel, offers it silently to Makoto as per usual. Though he’s always steadfastly refused before, this time he accepts without even thinking – driven, perhaps, by the guilt of selling out this harmless creature, this almost-friend; or the sobering thought of never seeing those brilliant blue eyes again. He mechanically chokes the fish down, hampered by the lump in his throat and the tightening in his chest. _Oh, god, what have I done? What am I doing?_

Those blue eyes search his for reasons, reasons for this break in the perfect roundness of their routine. No words need to be spoken at this point – Makoto’s face gives everything away. The expression in those orbs turns wistful for a second, before it’s swept behind a veil of hardness. Makoto’s secretly glad for the tears that obstruct his vision, because who knew betrayal would hurt this bad? He doesn’t want to _see, feel, think_ if it’s going to always hurt this bad. _Oh, god._

The door is slammed open as he swallows the mouthful of mackerel he has. The next thing he knows he’s been flung into a corner as masked faces loom, throwing fish guts and scales around and overturning everything in the room. The plate of mackerel is flipped over and kicked and smashed multiple times, the fish is ground vengefully into the tatami. Makoto feels a part inside of him die. He’s glad he finally ate that bite, because it means that he can still carry some part of his strange visitor with him – but all thoughts fly out of his head when a whip-like lash of sea spray curls around his neck, lifting him from the floor where he is huddled. He collapses, limp as a rag doll. _I'm sorry._   _I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry._ Before the villagers can get to the mer-creature, however, he’s already transformed himself fully into a briny mist that whips about the room – an indoor storm, to match the one outside. _Don't leave me._ The lightning and thunder intensify, the rain lashes the roof.

 

**xxx**

 

When the storm still refuses to abate after hours of the same massive downpour, the villagers shake their heads, _the gods must be angry_. Everyone knows what has to be done to appease them, the powerful beings who dwell in the heavens, in the earth and elements around them. The Tachibana boy must be erased: he is now a ghost, a dead ghost, who has never been born. They leave him at the edge of the swamp, something to be forgotten, something not to be spoken of. A no-name creature, like that visitor from the sea.

Makoto lies where he was thrown as the sun starts to rise, a still form in the rain as it gradually softens to a drizzle. The water gently embraces him as he slips into unconsciousness and the boy’s frame stops shaking. Blue lips that yearn for blue eyes.

 

**xxx**

 

_Please. Let me see you again._


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alternate ending #1.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay basically in this one instead of just Makoto dying everyone dies, savvy?  
> (less heartache involved for our darling mako, though)
> 
> oh. just to clarify, mako does not eat any of the mackerel in this one. story branches off from the part where he's tossing in bed until haru the mer-creature makes his appearance and then the villagers just haul him out of the room

 

The adults have hustled Makoto into a corner and told him to stay there while they deal with _that_ _creature_. He is thoroughly terrified, and tries desperately to blot out his fear by staring at the wood grain and the tatami weave, or thinking about his younger twin siblings. _God, where were they? Hopefully not in the house. He didn’t want them to see this._ When the entire village has thrashed through every inch of his room and satisfactorily ascertained that the ghost creature has been driven off and will not return, they leave. Makoto’s parents lay a futon out for him in one of the communal rooms, absently ruffle his head and tell him they’ll get round to cleaning up soon enough, and then he can go back to his quarters.

He nods and slips between the sheets like a good boy.                   

Later, in the deepest part of the night, he finally dares to crack open his eyes and slowly scan his surroundings. All is quiet, the house filled with peaceful, even breathing. Makoto pads softly to his room, sliding open the paper door with extra care so as not to make any noise. As he takes a grim survey of the wreckage from where he stands in the doorway, something catches the corner of his sad green eyes. It’s _The Plate, the mackerel plate._ Brutally smashed into pieces and no longer with any mackerel on it, but Makoto would recognise it anywhere as _The Mackerel_ _Plate_.

Slowly, he picks his way through the mess, edging carefully around the debris (especially the fish guts) until he reaches the shards of the plate. Crouching over them as he is now, he can see that one of the curved shards has a beautifully positioned drop of water on it. It gleams at him, winking under the moonlight that filters in from the open window – and he’s entranced again, willing and able to convince himself that it’s the mer-creature’s eye staring back at him.

He goes back to his futon, and dreams about picking up blue stones on the street. Life in the village goes back to normal, and the stormy nights don’t bring anyone now. His room hasn’t been salvaged yet, so he stays where he is for the moment, content with what the dreams can give him to hold on to, content to convince himself that he doesn’t feel empty. The peace lasts for exactly a week, before a massive wall of water obliterates their entire coastal village, flattening it completely to the ground.

 

**xxx**

 

Some weeks later the body of a brown haired, green eyed boy is found by a trawler out at sea. They fish him out and bag the body best as they can, alert the authorities. They put the sealed bag in the corner, next to the pile of mackerel, and continue fishing.

Right now Japan is in the full heat of summer, with everyone wishing for the coolness of spring.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like I should apologize for the 'rocks fall everyone dies' kind of ending...but hey. This is staying a one-shot. And yes the lame-ass last line is an attempt to reference haru's name because haru means spring (sobs)
> 
> The original ending and alternate scenarios weren't exactly like this, but I went back and tweaked them because it would be rude to so flagrantly ignore the geography of Japan, as well as the order of the seasons (like, I was totally gonna have summer come before spring LOL and the rainy season had to actually happen so yep *googles Japan's climate*)
> 
> Love ya.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alternate end #2. This is an attempt at the beautiful death kind of thing -- you know what I mean: slow-motion falling, light refracting off surfaces, staring deeply into each other's eyes and so on. welp.
> 
> enjoy!

_//_

_Makoto feels a part inside of him die. He’s glad he finally ate that bite, because it means that he can still carry some part of his strange visitor with him – but all thoughts fly out of his head when a whip-like lash of sea spray curls around his neck, lifting him from the floor where he is huddled. He collapses, limp as a rag doll. Before the villagers can get to the mer-creature, however, he’s already transformed himself fully into a briny mist that whips about the room – an indoor storm, to match the one outside. The lightning and thunder intensify, the rain lashes the roof._

_//_

 

The mer-creature as sea spray is a force of nature, one that completely overwhelms Makoto when he finds himself completely wrapped in it, before he even has time to _blink_. The water droplets swirl around him, alive, and suddenly he finds himself outside, being tugged along at an alarming pace through the village, down the path that leads straight to the ocean.

He tries to stop, instinctively shying away from the thought of being swallowed by waves – yet wanting more than anything to be able to trust in this wild creature completely. After all, if he can hold tender feelings for a blue eyed thing, one that he’s come to equate to the ocean, then his fear of the sea ought to be overridden. God, he feels so _torn_. It’s almost cruel to have to ask him to choose, to make a decision _right now_ , as those cool blue eyes order him to. Makoto can’t see them, but he knows that they’re trained on him, traitorous little whelp that he is. He wouldn’t trust himself either, he thinks.

It’s nearly too late now, they’ve come face to face with the ocean in all it’s angry, roaring, rain-swelled might. The sight is too much for Makoto’s already overwrought nerves, and he falls to his knees – an elegant crumpling of his form.

It is then that the creature materialises in front of him once more, and with him is the plate of mackerel. Makoto’s mind has only dimly registered his presence when his jaw is gently prised open and a piece of the fish inserted by nimble fingers; they meet no resistance. He swallows the morsel whole when prompted.

The village boy only reacts – his calm eyes going wide – when the mer-creature presses surprisingly warm lips over his own and pushes him into the water in the same, fluid motion. They sluice through the choppy surface waves and the swelling undercurrents just below, into a zone deep enough where the water is calm: the creature’s tail flicks, hands keeping a gentle pressure on Makoto’s chest, lips still on lips, propelling the pair downwards.  They go deeper, deeper. After a while Makoto gives up searching for any light from the surface, and looks onto the light of those beautiful blue eyes instead.

 

  **xxx**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the conclusive end of this little story.
> 
> thanks for reading :-)

**Author's Note:**

> so yep. 
> 
> following chapters will be alternate endings that do not promise to be less tragic. I'll try including shades of romance, though.


End file.
